Lagunitas Undercover Investigation Shut-Down Ale

Brewed by Lagunitas Brewing Company
Style: American Strong Ale
Petaluma, California USA

Bottle. Pours an amber orange with a beige moderate head. Smells of pine, candy sugar, and orange peel. Tastes caramelly, piney, grassy, and syrupy. Nice bitterness, Creamy mouthfeel. Nice carbonation and body.

Pours a generally clear dark red brown to dark amber color with a one finger white foamy head. Aroma is sweet and floral with notes of citrus, pine, grapefruit, some hints of malt, brown sugar, caramel. Flavor is sweet and malty with more muted notes of floral hops, citrus, grapefruit and stronger notes of grassy wheats, malt, caramel, some spice and floral hops toward finish. Generally light to medium body with a slightly floral hoppy finish.

This beer smells a lot better than it tastes. This is an overly hopped and unbalanced IPA. It is surprisingly simple for an imperial, with the hops dominating every part of the flavor. The quality of the hops are obviously very high, and the flavor is nice, but there is very little malt to be tasted, the mouthfeel thin, and the flavor is short-lasting. I am beating this beer up a bit as I have high standards for imperial IPAs, and also for this brewery in general. It is not terrible, but I can think of a long list of imperial IPAs I’d rather have than this one.

Nice, when I saw the alc. on this thought it was going to be another barley wine by them (prior 2 I rated of there’s were barley), but one whiff of pine and knew it was something else entirely. Also some grain and caramel in there. Color is orange-brown with thick white head and nice heavy lacing. Palate starts syrupy, and ends up dry. Has a bit of boozy aftertaste.

Bottle. Pours mostly clear amber-orange with a moderate off-white head. Aroma is citris hops, brown sugar, some sweet-smelling fresh citrus, and some other fruits (strawberry?!). Flavor is sticky, resiny hops (more woody than in the aroma), with some caramel malt, brown sugar, fruits, and noticeable alcohol. Doesn’t quite hold together on the whole, but there’s enough going on here to be interesting.

Say, this is yummier than I thought it might be. Coppery red pour with some off-white head. Looks and smells like an Imperial Red. Hoppy, but slightly buttery like some amber ales and fruit (some strawberry seed notes). Not bad at all.

Bottle. Pours out a red color with a tan head on it. Smell is mostly grassy with hops, and pine, a little bit of caramel malt is interjected into it as well. Sweet yet hoppy in the taste, the alcohol is never felt. Very interesting beer, and actually one of their better beers. Reminds me of a darker, thicker version of hop stoopid.